Epidemiology of Hypertension in Psoriasis: An Analysis of Trends from 2006 to 2023

Psoriasis and hypertension (HTN) are known to be closely related. However, at present, no study has systematically examined the epidemiology of this disease pattern on a global scale.

We examined six databases from their inception until November 1, 2023 and used the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale to assess the quality of observational studies. Data analysis was conducted in R. Meta-regression, sensitivity, and subgroup analyses were used to evaluate interstudy heterogeneity. Egger's test and funnel plots were used to evaluate publication bias.

We reviewed 200 studies involving 15,010,888 patients. The overall prevalence of HTN among the patients with psoriasis was 32.22%. Overall, South America had the highest prevalence of hypertension among adult patients with psoriasis (52.36%), the three countries with the highest prevalence were Serbia, Singapore and Brazil. The prevalence of mild and severe psoriasis comorbid with HTN was 31.71% [95% CI: 24.40-40.05%] and 33.19% [95% CI: 27.17-39.81%], respectively. The prevalence of HTN in psoriasis vulgaris was 29.71% [95% CI: 25.10-35.15%], while that in psoriatic arthritis was 34.54% [95% CI: 31.27-38.14%].

Patients with psoriatic arthritis are more predisposed to requiring hypertension risk screening than patients with psoriasis vulgaris. More population-based prospective observational studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the coexistence of hypertension in patients with psoriasis.